36.0°

Occupation: Fish tender vessel owner, apartment rentals

Family: Wife, Barbara; daughters, Madelyn and Valerie

Education: Cupertino High School (Cupertino, CA), graduated 1966; California State University, Long Beach, B.A., 1977

Previously held elected office and experience: Alaska House of Representatives, 2 terms; chair, Labor & Commerce; chair, Oil & Gas; elected to the Soldotna City Council (2 years); Central Emergency Services Service Area Board of Directors (8 years total, 3 as chair); Alaska legislative aide

Organizations and special interests: Rotary (Spenard, Kenai, and Soldotna); Peninsula Winter Games Board of Directors; Kenai and Soldotna chambers of commerce (board of directors in Soldotna 5 years); and the Kenai Wild Salmon Brand Board of Directors

Ways for voters to contact you: e-mail: kobo@alaska.net; phone: 260-4822

1. How should Alaska position itself to ride out or perhaps benefit from the stark realities of the current economic crises, and what steps do you think the Legislature should take to help protect constituents?

Compared to the rest of the country, we are extremely fortunate. We should have a modest surplus for this fiscal year, if we keep the operating and capital budgets under control. We cached $5 billion last year for future lean years, paid off the debt to the CBR (Constitutional Budget Reserve), and forward-funded education for one year. We also picked up a portion of the PERS/TRS debt of local governments and school districts. We are working on a Long-Term Energy program, with the intent of having it in place by the end of 2009. It is crucial that a bullet-line from the North Slope to Cook Inlet provide gas for home and industrial use in 4-5 years. We need "in-state" gas now. The Denali or AGIA gas line will not be delivering gas for at least 12 years. The next step -- a long-term fiscal plan.

2. Alaska is a resource state, but relatively little in the way of processing infrastructure has been built here that would allow Alaska to add value to those raw materials. What can and should Alaska do to change that?

There are several factors contributing to the lack of a processing infrastructure in Alaska. The most notable would be the lack of a transportation system (roads, rail or pipelines) to bring raw materials such as natural gas, minerals or timber to centralized processing facilities and then provide a distribution system for value-added products to both in-state and outside markets.

Agrium would be a good example. Without a year-round supply of reasonably priced gas, the plant was unable to operate year-round. Companies such as Dow Chemical have indicated that the Kenai Peninsula would be ideal if there was a steady supply of gas.

The state can and should expedite construction of a bullet line from the North Slope to Fairbanks and Cook Inlet. We also need to expand our road and rail system into resource rich areas of Alaska. We will need federal assistance on projects of this scale.

3. Surpluses from high oil prices have allowed the Legislature to increase funding to schools. What is your opinion of the current level of education funding and why?

Our budget surplus has allowed for solid education funding during the next few years.

The area cost differential has been phased in with 50 percent of the ISER factors during fiscal year 2009 with the remaining 50 percent spread over the next four years. The base-student allocation for intensive needs students will have a multiple of nine in FY 2009, 11 in 2010, 13 in 2011 and beyond. The base-student allocation will also increase. Education standing committees in the House and Senate have been formed. Work will begin next year on an allocation system to replace ISER.

Our greatest challenge is to increase specialized vocational training programs. We need to get our next generation ready for gas line and North Slope jobs. We need to keep them in Alaska and not have those jobs go to workers from Canada and the Lower 48. This will be money well spent.

4. What are you prepared to do to advance alternative energy efforts in Alaska should you be elected?

Alternate energy presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the residents of Alaska. The challenge will be developing a mix of power sources that can power our grids efficiently and at a reasonable price. With State support there will be will be lower priced reliable power.

At the top of my list would be hydro, geo-thermal, tidal and new generation small nuclear facilities. At least two communities are looking at small reactors. All of these sources would provide reliable power, 24-7, year-round. Wind and solar may be suitable in certain regions of the state but are not as reliable. Clean coal power such as Healy is still down the road.

With approval of their members, electrical distributors should be able to acquire surplus power from their members through credits. This could be done by "net metering" or SNAP programs. Each company should have flexibility on program design.